Product changeover e.g. in a beverage filling plant to a bottle with a different label normally requires production standstill. The production machine is here run empty, changed to a new label and started again. Standstill causes a gap in the production stream that can be used for subsequent machines, for instance a packaging machine, for changeover to a different packaging material, but the standstill period is lost as production time.
Solutions for solving the problem dealing with a decrease in downtimes have already been described in connection with malfunctions on production machines. For instance a method is known for automatically operating a buffer path, wherein bottles are diverted in case of an accumulation or jam in front of a labeling machine into a sidearm of the conveying path. After elimination of the malfunction and the jam, the sidearm is evacuated at an increased speed into the labeling machine whereas succeeding bottles are still passed into the sidearm. After all of the previously collected bottles have been transported out of the sidearm, inlet and outlet of the sidearm are closed, and normal operation is resumed. The number of the bottles remaining in the sidearm can be successively reduced by repeating the method.
Moreover, a bottle treatment facility is known in which a filling machine can be run empty in a controlled way so as to interrupt the feed stream to a defective labeling machine. For this purpose the filling machine is connected during normal operation through a first conveying path to the labeling machine. At the inlet of the conveying path a deflection device is arranged that in case of a malfunction of the labeling machine diverts the bottle stream into a second conveying path extending in parallel. At the same time a corresponding bottle stop at the downstream ends of the conveying paths is closed and the inflow of new bottles into the filling machine is interrupted. Thus the second conveying path serves to accommodate the bottles already positioned in the filling machine. After the malfunction has been eliminated, the bottle stop of the second conveying path is first opened and the bottles contained therein are passed into the labeling machine. Normal operation is resumed thereafter.
None of these known methods, however, can reduce or altogether avoid downtimes of the filling plant during product changeovers on a production machine.